He's a she

 

After years of soul searching I now know (until my neurons evaporate) that the United States is a singular subject which must then be conjugated accordingly.

This leads us to a typically light topic: What is the gender of the 50 American States in French or other European languages?

A quick look at Wiki and we come back with the following result: 8 of the 50 American states are considered feminine in gender (in French) regarding their names and the way they must be conjugated.

California,

Carolina (North and South)

Florida,

Georgia, 

Louisiana,

Pennsylvania

Virginia,

Suffice to look at the last letter of each one and you can't be mistaken that the a ending is indicative of a Latin root. Which doesn't explain much since 12 other States also end with an a.

Alabama,

Alaska,

Arizona,

Dakota (north and south)

Iowa,

Indiana,

Minnesota,

Montana,

Nebraska,

Nevada,

Utah.

Hmmmm… looks like I need a linguist's expertise here since many names have their roots in the native's own names for their territories. Maybe did the colonists adapt the original Indian names to a more European educated-sounding tune. 

Another wild guess: Save for Pennsylvania, all these names are girl first names in French (Virginie, Caroline, Louis/Louise) or Spanish.

My attention was called upon this rather unimportant matter a dozen years ago about California since that was, at the time, the only State that came to my mind as being feminine in French. The answer I got then was referring to a Spanish novel and I left it to it.

But here you'll find a much comprehensive article regarding the origin of the name California.

I suppose you'll find similar articles on Wiki a propos all American States whether they bear a "feminine" name or not.

I haven't furthered the research in German, Polish or Italian but hey, if you feel like...